Lawmakers on the Contract Review Committee delayed a $200,000 Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) legal contract for William Lunsford of Butler Snow on Thursday.
The delay comes weeks after three attorneys from Butler Snow, including Lunsford, were sanctioned by a federal judge for a single legal filing in litigation against ADOC that was generated by artificial intelligence and included fabricated citations. The other attorneys sanctioned were Matthew Reeves and William Cranford.
Any lawmaker on the Contract Review Committee can request that any contract that comes before the committee be delayed for up to 45 days, but they can't stop a contract from being approved.
The $200,000 contract is related to the case James David Johnson v. Contenna Moore, et al. in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County. According to court documents, Reeves withdrew from the case in late May shortly after his use of AI was discovered in a separate case.
“One of the attorneys at Butler Snow is no longer a Deputy AG,” Will Califf, a spokesperson for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, told 1819 News on Thursday.
Clay Crenshaw, chief deputy Alabama Attorney General, told lawmakers at the meeting on Thursday, “The previous lawyer who was on the case has been removed from any representation involving DOC. That particular lawyer was sanctioned recently, and so he has been removed.”
“There was extensive analysis done by the Butler Snow firm and by an outside law firm that found that there was one document where I think there were three or four AI-generated, fake citations, which the person that was most culpable for that is the one who has been removed from these cases. Mr. Lunsford, although he was sanctioned, certainly did not have a lot of culpability with that. Again, one document out of many hundreds that they have filed. One mistake was made,” Crenshaw said.
Northern District of Alabama U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco said in her sanctions order in July that Lunsford had an “utter disregard for the truth of filings bearing his name” for not catching the AI-generated fake citations used by Reeves.
State Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) criticized the amount of money flowing to Lunsford to defend ADOC as a deputy attorney general in various lawsuits.
“Lunsford and whatever firm he’s with is basically a government agency at this point,” England said. “We’re millions of dollars in the hole with really nothing to show for it. We’re paying Lunsford more money than some government agencies.”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email [email protected].
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
